When Great Basin Federal Credit Union decided to expand its field of membership from one county in Nevada to 10 additional counties, including three in another state, Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Denoo knew that they needed a solution to help them scale strategically. They were looking for a way to efficiently serve members in these new markets, without adding overhead.

After evaluating several options, the Great Basin team selected Zest AI’s solution suite for its superior risk performance, operational efficiency, dedicated advisory team, and lending intelligence platform. They immediately saw the benefit of scaling with better risk assessment and more intelligent analysis, enabling them to grow their reach without increasing staff or making a significant dent in the bottom line.

“We’re a strong lender—we run a very high loan-to-share ratio—and we wanted to be able to continue that and even ramp it up a little bit as we moved into new counties,” said Denoo. “With Zest AI entering the picture, we were able to increase our instant approvals and do more business, more quickly without having to add staff.”

Zest AI helped Great Basin accomplish its growth-focused mission. Over the course of two years, they were able to process 165% more auto loan applications without the addition of new team members.

“What’s even better is that our approval ratios remained consistent. So, even adding all of those loans, we maintained our core approval rate. Efficiency was absolutely gained through the relationship with Zest AI,” Denoo noted.

The growth play

With underwriting success under its belt, Denoo and the Great Basin team turned their focus to business strategy. With the addition of LuLu Strategy, Zest AI’s lending intelligence companion, Great Basin has taken their team’s strategic business questions and turned them into real-time insights.

“In today’s environment, you plan in Q3 or Q4, and by the first quarter of the next year, things have changed,” said Denoo. “LuLu allows us to pivot quickly and make fact-based decisions to better support both our members and the credit union.”

That real-time information has enabled Great Basin to continue growing, even in a tricky economy. While weathering some standard upticks in delinquencies given the economic environment, the credit union still outpaced its competitors in terms of revenue growth—and LuLu helped substantiate that claim for the Board.

Denoo used LuLu to determine how they fared comparatively, considering higher-than-usual delinquencies and charge-offs. She asked LuLu to share a report on their spreads and how they looked compared to their peer group. LuLu encouraged Denoo to take things one step further and expand the lens of their peer group to plus or minus 20% of their asset size and also deliver shifts through the years. In addition to prompting a wider lens on the data, LuLu was also able to uncover that even with higher delinquencies, Great Basin was outperforming their peers by almost 100 basis points.

“LuLu was really able to demonstrate that we’re pricing things right, and we’re still making reasonable underwriting decisions,” explained Denoo. “We could likely reduce losses by investing more heavily and slowing loan growth, but we would also sacrifice the income, member relationships, and long-term value that come from putting capital to work through lending.”

Since adopting AI-driven lending with Zest AI, Great Basin has delivered a 146% increase in annual interest revenue, 165% growth in loan applications without having to add staff and has moved funded auto loans from $23 million to $66 million.

“While we attribute much of our revenue growth to our expansion, we wouldn’t be where we are today without our partnership with Zest AI,” said Denoo. “For one, we would have had to hire underwriting staff to support the uptick in loan applications, and we also would have had to bring on a data analyst to parse information for strategic decision-making, the way we do with LuLu. Those cost savings multiply, especially when you consider them in light of income.”

The importance of a good partnership

For her part, Denoo sees Zest AI as an extension of her team, supporting what’s next for Great Basin.

“LuLu has become a data analyst right on our team, and we refer to her as if she’s on our team, often saying things like, ‘I’m going to go ask Lulu that,’” Denoo indicated. “It almost feels like we’re cheating. We have such a leg up, and I love it. I’m just very excited that we chose this partnership.”